Cyril Ernest's sporting career

I had my early education at St. Mary's College, Negombo, where I played for the school cricket team and also played for Negombo United cricket club in the Daily News Trophy tournament as a 15 and 16 year old. In 1958, I was selected to play on the Rest team under Kingsley Fernando (St. Sebastians) in the National inter-schools cricket championship. It was a quadrangular tourney between Colombo North Schools, Colombo South Schools, Kandy Schools and the Rest of Ceylon. We beat the highly favoured Colombo North Schools in our first game and went on to meet the Colombo South Schools in the finals which I believe was captained by Michael Tissera. We lost to them in the finals. I top scored with 66 runs in the game against Colombo North in the first innings and also batted well against the Colombo South team.

After this cricket encounter my Dad took me to St. Josephs College, Colombo to enter this school to pursue my studies and sports. My Dad knew the then Rector of St. Joseph's College, Fr. Peter Pillai very well. However, when we went to meet him he was away in England. So we ended up at St. Benedict's College, and I was accepted as a student by Rev. Br. Alban Patrick.

I was boarded at the College hostel which enabled me to participate in sports as well as pursue my studies.I represented St. Benedict's in cricket, hockey, tennis, and track and field at the highest level in inter-school competition.My first encounter in school cricket at St. Benedict's was against St. Thomas' College in 1959.They were a formidable side. I went in to bat at the fall of the 7th wicket, and I put on a partnership with Anton Abeysekera of over 50 runs to take our score to some state of respectability.Anton was not out at 45 runs.We did lose this game.My first captain was Lionel Fernando, and I remember the game against St. Anne's College, Kurunegala played in Kotahena when Lionel scored 204 runs not out and took all 10 wicketsin the first innings and 7 wickets in the second innings - considered a world record at the time.I fielded at leg slip and took 3 or 4 catches off his bowling.I scored several half centuries during my career at St. Benedict's as an opening batsman, with ahighest score of 71 against St. Joseph’s. My best bowling figures was against Royal College when I grabbed 5 wicket in the first innings in the 1960 encounter.In our match against Royal College in 1959, LorenszPerera scored adashing century. I was out to two brilliant catches by Michael Dias in each innings. The Bens-Josephian encounter of 1959 is well-remembered. St. Benedict’s had not beaten St. Joseph’s for a very long time (last being in 1917), and we were on the verge of winning this encounter, but we dropped two vital catches. Josephians’, Cedric Direckze and Nihal Samarawickrema somehow survived, and not only did they save the game but went on to win it as well.

In hockey at St. Benedict’s I played right-half. We were coached by the famous Brian Assey, and we had a very good side. He was our Chemistry teacher, and he also played for Ceylon. From the 1959-60 sides, there were six/seven Benedictines who represented Ceylon in hockey. The names that come to mind are Rex Sebastian, Batcho Selvaraj, W. Charles, Anthony MacIntyre, the Fernando brothers (Stanley, Homer, and Subash), and NattarAssissi. Our main rivals were St. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, as they used to give us a good fight in hockey. We were National Champs in 1959 and 1960. In tennis, I played in the public schools tournament and in doubles my partner was Shiran Pieris. We lost to the eventual champions, NavinGuneratne and Lal Senaratne, in the quarter-finals in 1959. In Track and Field, I represented college at the public schools championships, having qualified by coming second to Warna Fernando in the Western Province North Group meet. I can recall those whom I competed against as Ranjit Samarasekera (Antontian), Anton Perera (Peterite), R. U. Liyanage (St. Thomas’ Matale), Lorensz DaSilva (St. Thomas’ Mount Lavinia), and Warna Fernando (Ananda).

In cricket, Mr. Bertie Wijesinghe was our coach, and Mr. Felix Fernando was our master-in-charge. We were really fortunate to have been coached and trained by them. I remember how Mr. Wijesinghe went about his coaching, all about basics – we had to do batting drills with concentration on ball after ball. It was the same with bowling. I was trained as an off-spin bowler by him. The art of flight, accuracy, and planning before each ball was bowled, studying the batsman and how to outsmart him, were all part of the drills. We had to repeat these steps with sheer concentration and focus on what was delivered. 

In 1960, St. Benedict’s 1^st XI was captained by Elmo Rodrigopulle, and Ranjit Fernando was my opening batting partner. The team was comprised of Allen Gunesekera, Sanath Jayawardena, Winston Dissanayake, Ranjit Perumal, QuintasPerera, Gordon Dissanayake, Cecil Saverimuthu, Nihal Fernandopulle, Nihal Zoysa, Nihal Amerasinghe, Percy Perera, Fredrick Silva, and Chandra Ramanathan. Bede Puvimansinghe was our Prefect of Games, and Bertie Wijesinghe remained as our coach. In that year, we recorded on of the famous wins against St. Peter’s where Elmo got a hat trick, and I also got a few wickets. St. Peter’s were led by AdielAnghie. St. Peter’s also had a very good side. St. Anthony’s, under Charlie Joseph, also another good side. St. Joseph’s too, was another formidable side. They had Brian Perumal and I remember scoring consecutive boundaries off him on a matting wicket, that didn’t please him much. Then, St. Thomas’, under my good friend Dr. LareefIdroos, we lost once again to the Thomians that year. If not mistaken, I scored 34 runs in the first innings and 64 in the second innings. I would like to mention the support we got from the Benedictine supporters led by Kenneth Dabrera at Kotahena. 1961 was my last season at St. Benedict’s. 1961 was my last season at College as I entered the University that year.. I should mention  the great teachers who taught me at St. Benedict’s – Rev. Br. Theodoret, Mr. RH Phillips (Physics), Mr. Brian Assey {Chemistry), Mr. Peter Fernando ( Zoology) and Mr. Thillainathan ( Botany).

I entered Medical College in 1962 and my Dad Christopher Ernest died when I was in the 3^rd. MBBS class. In the University combining sports with the studies was not easy. However I pursued my sports career representing the University in cricket and hockey.In 1962/63 season we won the Sara Trophy in cricket – the one and only time the University had won this National championship. Our cricket team had an array of schoolboy stars and we blended well together under the leadership of Carlyle Perera. The team comprised of Buddy Reid, Nihal Gurusinghe,Mohanlal Fernando, LareefIdroos,HarshaSamarajiva,URPGoonetilleke,V. Sivanandan,Nanda Senanayake, KitthaWimalaratne, MerrilGunaratne, Mano Ponniah, NJS de Mel and myself. Kingsley Fernando played a few games. Our fielding was superb. We were rewarded with a tour to Singapore and Malaysia for winning the Sara Trophy and we did extremely well on this tour. Our hockey team also won the Andriesz shield in the premier hockey tournament in Ceylon during our time. I captained the University team in 1967 my final year. I also captained the Ceylon University team to India for the inter University tournament in 1966.

While in the University, I was selected to play in the Up Country XI against Pakistan in Kandy. The Pakistan team was captained by Imtiaz Ahmed and had IntikhabAlam, JavedBurki, Asif Iqbal amongst others. I was also on the Ceylon side in 1969 under the captaincy of Michael Tissera when we beat Colin Cowdrey’s MCC team. I had the privilege of getting the wickets of Colin Cowdrey and Basil D’Oliviera. I also played against Madras in the Gopalan Trophy representing Ceylon  and scored 45 not out to help Ceylon beat Madras. I also toured India with the Ceylon Govt. Services team under DH De Silva in 1969 and also played against Joe Lister’s International side. After leaving the University, I played for the NCC and subsequently joinining the Air Force on the Adastrians team. I captained the Adastrians and also the Combined Services team in the Robert Senanayake tournament. Prior to joining the Air Force I was a regular member of the Govt. Services side and we won the Robert Senanayake championships on two consecutive years. In the Air Force, I captained the side which won the Inter Services cricket tourney and also playing on the Hockey team we won the Inter Services Hockey championship. I was selected to play on the Ceylon side in cricket against the visiting Pakistan team in 1971, however the Pakistan team did not come to Ceylon when war broke out against India over the Bangladesh problem.

I left Ceylon in Feb. 1972, and landed in New York where my buddy LareefIdroos picked me up from the JFK airport. I was in New York for 5 years where I qualified in Internal Medicine and got my sub speciality degree in Cardiology. The 5 years spent in New York were very tough years and I did not have any time for cricket. After finishing my training in Internal Medicine and Cardiology, I moved to California with my family. I have since remained in California. Once in California I resumed playing cricket in the local tournament and I was a member of a Sri Lankan club – Colts. In 1979 I was selected to play on the USA team against Canada along with LareefIdroos and C. Balakrishnan. This match was in Vancouver.We lost to Canada by a bare margin. Subsequently , I was selected to play on the USA National team in 1982 in Birmingham , England for the ICC trophy. Zimbabwe won this tournament and they were able to advance to playing test cricket. Lareef, Bala and myself have had the distinction of playing International cricket for 2 countries –Ceylon and USA.

Even with a very busy private practice in Cardiology, I still pursued some of my other sports exploits – long distance running and martial arts. I have run 4 marathons -2 in Honolulu, one in Los Angeles and in Beijing, China. I am also a 2^nd. Degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. I was involved on the administrative side of USA cricket and at one time I was the manager of the USA team and also chairman of selectors..

My wife Indranie is also a doctor and she still works full time. My daughters Cheryl and Melanie are also in California and they are pursuing careers in Psychiatry. We do travel quite extensively, and at the last count we have travelled to over 95 Countries and hope to make it to a hundred.

We have been living in California since 1977. Looking back, the times I spent at St. Benedict’s College have been the most wonderful years. The discipline, education and the environment we grew up in under the tutelage of the Christian Brothers has indeed helped us immensely in our lives. We are truly indebted to them for affording us this privilege.